There are two ways to cross by land between China and Kyrgyzstan: the Irkeshtam pass, sending you to the southern part of the country, and the Torugart pass, sending you to the northern part of the country.
The Irkeshtam pass is a more common crossing for tourists, as it is possible to make the crossing independently using buses and shared taxis. In contrast, the Torugart pass requires that you travel with both a guide and a driver.
Although it requires a bit of extra organizing, the Torugart pass route deposits you in a more convenient location for exploring the northern part of Kyrgyzstan. It is also a spectacular and wild drive, which crosses a long no-man’s land and brings you up close and personal with a very serious border operation.
Getting Ready
You must travel with a registered guide and driver to cross the Torugart Pass. There are a few different tour companies in Kashgar that can organize the trip for you. The Kashgar-based company will organize your travel from Kashgar to the border, and will coordinate with a Kyrgyz company (usually the excellent Community-Based Tourism organizations) to meet you at the border and take you to your destination in Kyrgyzstan. You can choose to stay at the yurtstay in Tash Rabat (see the cover photo for this article) for your first night in Kyrgyzstan, or continue on to Naryn.
We travelled with Old Road Tours and highly recommend their services. They were professional, responded promptly to our messages, and helped us organize to cross the border with only a few days’ notice. Old Road Tours has an office in a Kashgar hotel, but we organized our trip over WeChat, which is a great way to communicate with anyone in China. Their ID is: wxid_pz2ulfe070j732 .
The agency will request pictures of your passport photo page in order to assemble the permits and stamps required to pass the checkpoints. The night before leaving, our guide came to meet with us at our hotel and collect our payment.
You’ll need to pay the tour agency with cash, either USD or RMB depending what you have on hand. This should cost 2000-2500 RMB (300-400 USD) total, more if you would like to leave sooner. You’ll pay the Chinese tour agency directly, and once at the border they will give you an envelope to pay the Kyrgyz drivers.
In preparation for the journey, pack lots of food and water – there won’t be any rest stops along the way.
What to Expect
You’ll be well taken care of by your driver and guide, but despite the total distance between Kashgar and Naryn being only about 200km, it will be a very long day! We left Kashgar at 9am Beijing time and arrived in Naryn at dinnertime. (Note that Kyrgyzstan is 2 hours behind China time.)
As with the journey up the Karakoram Highway, the journey to the Torugart pass is filled with checkpoints, and you will show your passport many times. The Chinese exit immigration checkpoint comes fairly early in the drive and should not take too long. You may have your bags searched and books and maps might get some extra attention.
From the immigration checkpoint, the road to the border is primarily gravel and quite bumpy, but the mountains are beautiful and the barren terrain is fascinating. Cameras strictly enforce the speed limit on chinese highways, so the driving is slow going. You will need to show your passport a few more times. Your guide will accompany you each time to present the relevant paperwork and help translate any questions.
After you have passed the final chinese checkpoint, you may need to wait at the border gate. We had to wait about 1h30 as we arrived during the lunch break. You will not be allowed to exit the car or take photos.
Once you walk through the gate into Kyrgyzstan, you’ll meet up with your Kyrgyz driver. The hard part is over! There are no speed cameras in Kyrgyzstan so the driving will be much faster. You will stop once to pass immigration and again at a smaller checkpoint exiting the border area, but neither will be as intense as the Chinese checkpoints. Everything is much more relaxed in Kyrgyzstan.
Even if you opted not to visit Tash Rabat when booking your travel, the CBT Naryn guides can take you there on the way to Naryn. This detour provides a welcome break from sitting in the car and is a beautiful introduction to the history, scenery and clean air of Kyrgyzstan. The detour will cost 700 SOM, and entry to the Tash Rabat caravanserai is 100 SOM per person. Your driver can stop by an ATM when you arrive in Naryn so you can pay them for the side trip.
CBT Naryn can also help you find accommodation upon arriving in Naryn if you did not book in advance.
